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Federal Assault Weapons Ban

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The now defunct Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), or Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, was a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Title XI, subtitle A), a U.S. federal law that included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms. The 10-year ban was passed by the U.S. Congress on September 13, 1994, and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton the same day. The ban only applied to weapons manufactured after the date of the ban's enactment.

The Act expired on September 13, 2004, per its sunset provision. There were multiple attempts to renew the ban, but none succeeded.

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Criteria of an assault weapon

Note: There are differing criteria from state to state of what constitutes an Assault weapon. This page refers to the usage in the United States under the previous and proposed assault weapon bans.

The term assault weapon, when used in the context of this law, refers primarily (but not exclusively) to semi-automatic firearms that possess certain cosmetic features of an assault rifle that is fully automatic. Actually possessing the operational features, such as 'full-auto', changes the classification from assault weapons to Title II weapons. The mere possession of cosmetic features was enough to warrant classification as an assault weapon. Semi-automatic firearms, when fired, automatically extract the spent cartridge casing and load the next cartridge into the chamber, ready to fire again. They do not fire automatically like a machine gun. Rather, only one round is fired with each trigger pull.

In the former U.S. law, the legal term assault weapon included certain specific semi-automatic firearm models by name (e.g., Colt AR-15, TEC-9, non-select-fire AK-47s produced by three manufacturers, and Uzis) and other semi-automatic firearms because they possessed a minimum set of cosmetic features from the following list of features:

A semi-automatic Yugoslavian M70AB2 rifle.
An Intratec TEC-DC9 with 32-round magazine; a semi-automatic pistol formerly classified as an assault weapon under federal law.
Semi-automatic rifles able to accept detachable magazines and two or more of the following:
Semi-automatic pistols with detachable magazines and two or more of the following:
  • Magazine that attaches outside the pistol grip
  • Threaded barrel to attach barrel extender, flash suppressor, handgrip, or suppressor
  • Barrel shroud that can be used as a hand-hold
  • Unloaded weight of 50 oz (1.4 kg) or more
  • A semi-automatic version of a fully automatic firearm.
Semi-automatic shotguns with two or more of the following:
  • Folding or telescoping stock
  • Pistol grip
  • Fixed capacity of more than 5 rounds
  • Detachable magazine.

The federal assault weapons ban of 1994 amended Section 921(a) of title 18 of the United States Code to define semiautomatic assault weapons and specifically named the following nineteen (19) semi-automatic firearm models and/or model types, as well as any copies or duplicates of these firearms, in any caliber, as assault weapons:

  • SC-70 (variant of the AR-70)
  • MAC-type handguns, including
  • Revolving cylinder shotguns
  • Striker 12 (commonly referred to as the "Street Sweeper").

Provisions of the ban

The federal assault weapons ban was only a small part (title XI, subtitle A) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.

The Act created a flowchart for classifying 'assault weapons' and subjected firearms that met that classification to regulation. Nineteen models of firearms were defined by name as being 'assault weapons' regardless of how many features they had. Various semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns were classified as 'assault weapons' due to having various combinations of features.

The Act addressed only semi-automatic firearms, that is, firearms that fire one shot each time the trigger is pulled. Neither the AWB nor its expiration changed the legal status of fully automatic firearms, which fire more than one round with a single trigger-pull; these have been regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934 and Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986.

The Act defined and banned 'large capacity ammunition feeding devices', which generally applied to magazines or other ammunition feeding devices with capacities of greater than a certain number of rounds, and that up to the time of the Act were considered normal or factory magazines. Media and popular culture referred to these as 'high capacity magazines or feeding devices'. Depending on the locality and type of firearm, the cutoff between a 'normal' capacity and 'high' capacity magazine was 3, 7, 10, 12, 15, or 20 rounds. The now defunct federal ban set the limit at 10 rounds.

During the ban, it was illegal to manufacture any firearm that met the law's flowchart of an assault weapon or large capacity ammunition feeding device, except for export or for sale to a government or law enforcement agency. The law also banned possession of illegally imported or manufactured firearms, but did not ban possession or sale of pre-existing 'assault weapons' or previously factory standard magazines that were legally redefined as large capacity ammunition feeding devices. This provision for pre-ban firearms created higher prices in the market for such items.

Several constitutional challenges were filed against provisions of the ban, but all were rejected by reviewing courts.

Compliance

Following the expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban in 2004, the NRA Institute for Legislative Action referred to the features affected by the ban as cosmetic. Similarly, the Violence Policy Center released a statement saying, in part, "Soon after its passage in 1994, the gun industry made a mockery of the federal assault weapons ban, manufacturing 'post-ban' assault weapons with only slight, cosmetic differences from their banned counterparts."

In addition, in March 2004, Kristen Rand, the legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, criticized the soon-to-expire ban by stating, "The 1994 law in theory banned AK-47s, MAC-10s, Uzis, AR-15s and other 'assault weapons'. Yet the gun industry easily found ways around the law and most of these weapons are now sold in post-ban models virtually identical to the guns Congress sought to ban in 1994."

Expiration and effect on crime

The Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent, non-federal task force, examined an assortment of firearms laws, including the AWB, and found "insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws reviewed for preventing violence." A 2004 critical review of research on firearms by a National Research Council panel also noted that academic studies of the assault weapon ban "did not reveal any clear impacts on gun violence" and noted "due to the fact that the relative rarity with which the banned guns were used in crime before the ban ... the maximum potential effect of the ban on gun violence outcomes would be very small...."

In 2004, a research report submitted to the United States Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice found that should the ban be renewed, its effects on gun violence would likely be small, and perhaps too small for reliable measurement, because rifles in general, including rifles referred to as "assault rifles" or "assault weapons", are rarely used in gun crimes. That study by Christopher S. Koper, Daniel J. Woods, and Jeffrey A. Roth of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania found no statistically significant evidence that either the assault weapons ban or the ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds had reduced gun murders. However, they concluded that it was "premature to make definitive assessments of the ban's impact on gun crime," and argue that if the ban had been in effect for more than nine years, benefits might have begun to appear.

Research by John Lott in the 2000 second edition of More Guns, Less Crime provided the first research on state bans, and the federal assault weapon ban. The 2010 third edition provided the first empirical research on the 2004 sunset of the Federal Assault Weapon Ban. Generally, the research found no impact of these bans on violent crime rates, though the third edition provided some evidence that assault weapon bans slightly increased murder rates. Lott's book The Bias Against Guns provided evidence that the bans reduced the number of gun shows by over 20 percent. Koper, Woods, and Roth studies focus on gun murders, while Lott's looks at murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assaults. Unlike their work, Lott's research accounted for state assault weapon bans and 12 other different types of gun control laws.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence examined the impact of the Assault Weapons Ban in its 2004 report, On Target: The Impact of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapon Act. Examining 1.4 million guns involved in crime, "in the five-year period before enactment of the Federal Assault Weapons Act (1990-1994), assault weapons named in the Act constituted 4.82% of the crime gun traces ATF conducted nationwide. Since the law’s enactment, however, these assault weapons have made up only 1.61% of the guns ATF has traced to crime." A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) stated that he "can in no way vouch for the validity" of the report.

Senator Diane Feinstein claimed the ban was effective because "It was drying up supply and driving up prices."

Efforts to renew the ban

Since the assault weapons ban expired on September 13, 2004, legislation to renew the ban has been proposed a number of times unsuccessfully.

On March 2, 2004, the Senate voted down the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (a bill to bar firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for crimes committed with their products) after a ten-year extension of the assault weapons ban was attached to it, sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was subsequently passed in 2005 without a renewal of the assault weapons ban.

In 2003, 2005, and 2007, Representative Carolyn McCarthy, Democrat of New York, introduced a bill that would have renewed the assault weapons ban for an additional ten years, and would have revised the definition of 'semiautomatic assault weapon'. The bill never left committee. In 2008, Representative Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, also introduced a bill to reinstate the assault weapons ban for ten years and expand the list of banned weapons. It too died in committee.

Shortly after the November 4, 2008 election, Change.gov, the website of the office of then President-Elect Barack Obama, listed a detailed agenda for the forthcoming administration. The stated positions included "making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent." This statement was originally published on Barack Obama's campaign website, BarackObama.com. The agenda statement later appeared on the administration's website, WhiteHouse.gov, with its wording intact.

On February 25, 2009 newly sworn-in Attorney General Eric Holder repeated the Obama administration's desire to reinstate the federal assault weapons ban. The mention came in response to a question during a joint press conference with DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, discussing efforts to crack down on Mexican drug cartels. Attorney General Holder said: "... there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons."

Senator Diane Feinstein introduced a federal assault weapons ban bill in the U.S. Senate following the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The bill had a provision to eliminate the sunset clause which was part of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, and would have been directed at firearms with detachable magazines and at least one single military feature. The GOP Congressional delegation from the State of Texas (a pro-gun state) condemned Sen. Feinstein's bill, along with the pro-gun lobby inclusive of the NRA. On March 14, 2013, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a version of the bill along party lines. On April 17, 2013, the Senate voted 60 to 40 against reinstating the federal assault weapons ban.

Assault weapons bans in other states

New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey have enacted bans similar to the federal assault weapons ban, outlawing or regulating semiautomatic rifles based on appearance. Cook County of Illinois has a similar, but more restrictive ban. California enacted one of the first bans on semi-automatic rifles, the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989, adding stricter measures to the law several times since. Connecticut has enacted a partial ban that focuses on assault weapons with certain characteristics. Hawaii and Maryland have bans on pistols with assault weapon characteristics.

See also

References

  1. Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, H.R.3355, 103rd Congress (1993-1994), Government Printing Office. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
  2. H.R. 2038, H.R. 3831, H.R. 5099, H.R. 1312, H.R. 1022, H.R. 6257
  3. Alex Seitz-Wald (February 6, 2013). "Don't mourn the assault weapons ban's impending demise". Salon. says the ban created an artificial distinction between 'assault weapons' and other semi-automatic weapons, based almost entirely on cosmetic features. This is largely true.
  4. Jacob Sullum (January 30, 2013). "What's an Assault Weapon?". Reason. The distinguishing characteristics of 'assault weapons' are mainly cosmetic and have little or no functional significance in the context of mass shootings or ordinary gun crimes.
  5. Megan McArdle (November 12, 2012). "Just Say No to Dumb Gun Laws". The Daily Beast. ... 'assault weapon' is a largely cosmetic rather than functional description.
  6. Jordy Yager (January 16, 2013). "The problem with 'assault weapons'". The Hill. Gun companies quickly realized they could stay within the law and continue to make rifles with high-capacity magazine clips if they steered away from the cosmetic features mentioned in the law.
  7. Michael A. Memoli (March 19, 2013). "Assault weapons ban to be dropped from Senate gun bill". Los Angeles Times. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who opposes stricter gun control, said he was not surprised Reid would drop the assault weapons ban, saying it was 'primarily focused on cosmetics, not on function.'
  8. David Kopel (December 17, 2012). "Guns, Mental Illness and Newtown". Wall Street Journal. None of the guns that the Newtown murderer used was an assault weapon under Connecticut law. This illustrates the uselessness of bans on so-called assault weapons, since those bans concentrate on guns' cosmetics, such as whether the gun has a bayonet lug, rather than their function.
  9. Vivian S. Chu, Legislative Attorney (February 14, 2013). "Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Legal Issues" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  10. Navegar Inc v U.S. (D.C. Cir. 1999) ("We hold that section 110102 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 is within Congress' Commerce Clause power and does not constitute an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder."), Text.,Navegar Inc v U.S. (D.C. Cir. 2000) ("... ORDERED by the Court that appellants' petition is denied."), Text.
  11. "Finally, the End of a Sad Era--Clinton Gun Ban Stricken from Books!". Fairfax, Virginia: National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. September 13, 2004.
  12. "Violence Policy Center Issues Statement on Expiration of Federal Assault Weapons Ban" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: Violence Policy Center. September 13, 2004.
  13. "Senate-Passed Assault Weapons 'Ban' Will Do Little to Keep Assault Weapons Off Our Streets, Violence Policy Center (VPC) Warns" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: Violence Policy Center. March 2, 2004.
  14. "First Reports Evaluating the Effectiveness of Strategies for Preventing Violence: Early Childhood Home Visitation and Firearms Laws. Findings from the Task Force on Community Preventive Services" (PDF). MMWR. 52 (RR-14). Atlanta, Georgia: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 11–20. 2003. ISSN 1057-5987.
  15. Wellford, Charles F; Pepper, John V; Petrie, Carol V, eds. (2013) . Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review (Electronic ed.). Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. p. 97. ISBN 0-309-54640-0.
  16. Koper, Christopher S. (2004) . "An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003 - Report to the National Institute of Justice, United States Department of Justice" (PDF). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia: Jerry Lee Center of Criminology. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  17. Koper, Christopher S. (2004) . "An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003 - Report to the National Institute of Justice, United States Department of Justice" (PDF). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia: Jerry Lee Center of Criminology. Retrieved December 31, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. Lott, John R. (June 15, 2000). More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-49364-0. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  19. Lott, John R. (January 29, 2013). More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws (3rd ed.). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-49367-1. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  20. "John R. Lott, Jr., The Bias Against Guns, Regnery Publishers: Washington, DC, 2003". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012-12-31.
  21. "On Target: The Impact of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapon Act" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. 2004. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  22. Ove, Torsten (March 28, 2004). "Assault Weapon Ban's Effectiveness Debated". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  23. Jacobson, Aileen. "Was assault-weapon ban a dud?". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2012-12-31.
  24. H.R. 2038 (108th): Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003. GovTrack.us.
  25. H.R. 1312 (109th): Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2005. GovTrack.gov.
  26. H.R. 1022 (110th): Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2007. GovTrack.us.
  27. H.R. 6257: Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008. GovTrack.us.
  28. "Urban Policy Agenda". Office of President-elect Barack Obama. Archived from the original on November 16, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  29. "Urban Policy". BarackObama.com. Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  30. "Urban Policy". The White House. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. Retrieved December 31, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  31. Ryan, Jason (February 25, 2009). "Obama to Seek New Assault Weapons Ban". ABC News. 6960824. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  32. C-SPAN.org
  33. "Lawmakers Renew Call To Restore Federal Assault Weapons Ban Following Newtown School Massacre". CBS New York. December 16, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
  34. "NYC Mayor Bloomberg: Obama's top priority should be gun control, starting with enforcing laws". The Washington Post. 16 December 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  35. Freedman, Dan (January 24, 2013). "Feinstein offers new assault weapons ban". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  36. Steinhauer, Jennifer (March 14, 2013). "Party-Line Vote in Senate Panel for Ban on Assault Weapons". The New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  37. Simon, Richard (April 17, 2013). "Senate votes down Feinstein's assault weapons ban". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
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